


Meddlin' Kids

by Nakeycatstakebaths



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Delinquent Vibes, F/M, Found Family, Friends to Lovers, Ghosts, Halloween, Inspired by Scooby Doo, Mystery, Scooby Doo References, Spooky, Witches, bodysnatching, idiots to lovers, who dun it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:54:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27218959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nakeycatstakebaths/pseuds/Nakeycatstakebaths
Summary: SCOOBY DOO AUOfficially, the delinquents were retired. They’d left the crime-solving and unmasking bad guys behind in favor of studying and adult responsibilities. But when they get a letter from Russell Lightbourne, inviting them to the mysterious Red Sun Festival, it might be time to rev up the old mystery machine. Murphy never thought they would be back together again, and the last thing he ever expected was for his crush on Raven to come back in full force. But when things in Sanctum, Massachusetts take a weird turn, their feelings may be the thing that saves them in the end.
Relationships: John Murphy/Raven Reyes, minor Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin - Relationship, minor Harper McIntyre/Monty Green
Comments: 6
Kudos: 39
Collections: The t100 Writers for BLM Initiative





	Meddlin' Kids

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hopskipaway](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopskipaway/gifts).



> For @hopskipaway and @t100ficforBLM 
> 
> I hope you like this little guy, happy spooky szn y'all

Raven’s phone buzzed from across the room, just once. 

It was probably a text, a text she should ignore. 

She was supposed to be studying for her Calc 3 exam, an exam that her entire GPA was basically riding on. 

But, curiosity got the best of her. 

Clarke Griffin: “Fall Break meeting at my house. It’s important.” 

It was a group text, Clarke, Bellamy, Raven, Monty, Jasper, Harper, and—Murphy. 

With a groan, Raven slammed her textbook closed, reading the text over again. 

Her phone buzzed again. 

John Murphy: “We’re retired.” 

Technically, he was right. They weren’t supposed to be doing this anymore. It was cute when they were meddling little delinquents. Now, they were just adults tampering with crime scenes. 

But Raven had to admit she missed the excitement of it all, missed their little group. 

Without their cases to bring them together, they drifted apart. 

Bellamy and Clarke were off in Polis, studying government. Monty, Jasper, and Harper were in TonDC in a microbiology program. Raven, along with Murphy, was still in their hometown. Just her luck that ArkU happened to have the best engineering program in the country. 

The split was natural—inevitable in a way. 

Their group never made sense together. Even back when they were kids, there were lots of bickering and disagreements. 

But they had an uncanny knack for attracting trouble—and for solving mysteries, nobody else was able to crack. 

Clarke Griffin: “It’s not a case.” 

Well, that—was unexpected. 

Whatever Clarke had up her sleeve, it was sure to be interesting. 

***

  
Murphy pulled into Clarke’s long winding driveway, knowing that his rusty van was starkly out of place beside the row of sleek white sports cars.

Despite everything, swearing off the meddling forever...being back here was a relief. 

At the end of the day, these were his oldest friends. They’d been his family when he hadn’t had anybody else. 

Things were better now, but with everyone in different places, he’d been thinking back on these days a lot. 

“Ready to go, Picasso?” He whispered, scratching his scruffy dog under the chin. 

The dog tilted his head in return, nudging into Murphy’s palm for more affection. 

No matter what changed, at least Picasso would always be by his side. 

Raven was standing outside the tall double doors, staring up at them. 

“Can you believe there was a time when we used to just barge in here like it was nothing?” she sighed, smiling almost wistfully. 

His heart twisted, not just at what she’d said—even if that stung more than it should, but from the sight of Raven. 

They didn’t have many chances to talk to each other these days, different lives, different friends.

Even at the same school, it was rare for them to cross paths. 

But looking at her now, he still felt the way he had since they were little kids. 

Raven was beautiful, a force to be reckoned with. 

Murphy smiled back, pulling himself together. He’d long ago resigned himself to the fact that they weren’t meant to be together. It was too cliche, after all, for them to pair up so conveniently. 

He adjusted his grip on Picasso’s leash so he could ring the doorbell. 

And a beat later, Clarke’s stepbrother answered. 

“Oh, dear God…” Wells groaned, opening the door and gesturing for them to come in. “I don’t even want to know why you’re all here.” 

And with that, he turned and disappeared. 

“Our reputation precedes us,” Raven laughed, shaking her head in the direction Wells left. 

Once again, Murphy was struck by how beautiful she was, how much he missed being around her, hearing her laugh. 

But of course, she could never know that. 

***

  
“I now call this meeting of the delinquents back in session!” Clarke proclaimed, almost knocking over her cup of hot chocolate as she balanced on the sofa. 

“If we’re going to do this again—I think we need a more professional-sounding name,” Murphy said from his place in the window seat, mouth full of cookies. 

Bellamy threw a piece of cookie at Murphy’s head, and it really felt like no time had passed at all. 

Raven fed Picasso a treat from the bag lying on the floor, preening when he curled up in her lap and fell asleep. 

She loved her friends from college, but this—felt like coming home. 

“Can you please tell us what this big secret is?” Raven said, scratching the top of P’s head. 

If someone didn’t corral this meeting in, it would spiral out of control, and whatever Clarke was cooking up would probably be pushed to another meeting. 

Raven couldn’t take the suspense any longer. 

“I bet Clarke wants to use us in her campaign video for Congress, and she needs us to sign a consent form,” Jasper teased, leaning back in a beanbag chair. 

It was a joke, but not totally off base. If Instagram was anything to go by, Clarke and Bellamy were set to become some sort of political power couple by the time they were in their mid-twenties. 

Clarke planted her hands on her hips, fixing Jasper with a stare that would scare a hardened criminal. 

“Raven, do you remember that author we met when we did that museum case?” Bellamy asked, taking the folded sheet of paper from Clarke. 

“You mean Russell Prime?!” She asked, raising an eyebrow that nobody else seemed to remember or care. “Of course I remember, he wrote that insane book on regeneration.” 

Bellamy chuckled and handed her the paper. 

It was a letter, written in loopy, smudged scrawl. 

Russell had reached out to Clarke, inviting their gang to come to visit his hometown. 

“Sanctum, Massachusetts? Seriously? Where even is that?” Murphy asked, reading over Raven’s shoulder. 

“I’m going to take a wild guess and say that it’s in Massachusetts,” Monty teased, presumably pulling out his phone to Google. 

The letter was short and vague, mainly a thank you for their help with the case in New York and inviting them to come to celebrate ‘the red sun festival’ with him. 

“It’s weird, right?” Clarke asked, flipping down on the couch. “It’s been two years.”

“Sanctum used to be a small religious town. It’s right next to Salem. So they got wrapped up in the whole witch trials thing just like everyone else, executed a bunch of people, classic Puritan rage. I guess recently they got a new mayor, and now it’s a really tacky tourist trap about the witch trials and colonial Boston,” Monty explained, holding up a picture from Wikipedia. “I think he figured we were a bunch of kids in college and would be thrilled at the idea of a fall festival with free beer.” 

“Misguided but not malicious,” Harper agreed, taking the phone so she could scan the page. 

They passed around the letter, chewing on their cookies. Clarke still seemed unconvinced by the whole thing. 

“So, do we go?” Raven asked, taking the letter back and reading it over one last time. “He offered to pay for us to stay at the inn and buy tickets for the festival.” 

There was a heavy silence. 

The implication was clear. 

Did they want to hang out with each other for an entire weekend? 

“I think we should do it,” Bellamy said, breaking the silence.

If anyone was going to suggest it, it had to be him. Clarke’s frown wavered a little, her eyes flitting back to the letter. 

“It is free…” she conceded, the ghost of a smile pulling up her lips. 

***

  
Murphy’s van was a less comfortable fit now that Picasso was full-grown, and the rest of them weren’t as skinny as they were in high school. 

But it felt wrong to travel any other way. 

From the outside, Sanctum was surrounded by sleepy rural communities, fields of fresh grass, and cows. But the second they passed the ‘Welcome to Sanctum’ sign, there were booths and stalls and expensively dressed tourists as far as the eye could see. 

“This is amazing,” Jasper exclaimed, hanging out the window at the same time Murphy groaned. 

Russell stood outside the inn, a huge smile plastered on his face, showing off his perfectly straight, white teeth. 

Something about him gave Murphy the creeps, always had, but nobody else ever seemed to notice. 

“Welcome to Sanctum,” he said cheerfully, waving broadly as they pulled into the newly paved parking lot. 

The whole place felt a little uncanny valley, full of bright oranges and reds, decorated with a mix of Halloween themed items and colonial replicas. 

And Russell’s photoshopped smile wasn’t really helping matters. 

“I’m so happy you guys could come for the festival,” he continued, reaching to help Bellamy unload the suitcases. 

They followed Russell into the quaint inn, which was really a Marriott, remodeled on the outside to look like it was the 17th century. 

Not exactly period accurate. 

“You think they had these in colonial Sanctum?” Raven snickered, pointing to the elaborate fountain that filled the hotel lobby. 

Murphy covered his laugh with a cough, glad that he wasn’t the only one who was completely turned off by this town. 

“How exactly do you want to…” Russell asked, jingling the keys in his palm as he looked between them. 

Quickly, Bellamy and Clarke, Harper and Monty all said they wanted their own rooms as couples. 

Leaving Raven, Murphy, and Jasper staring awkwardly at Russell. 

“Well then, one for the lady and one for the two of you,” he said with a satisfied smile, passing off the remainder of the keys. 

“Octavia is going to be so mad if she finds out there was enough room for her to come,” Bellamy sighed, picking up his and Clarke’s bags as Russell led them toward their rooms. 

***

  
There was a bang on a door beside Raven’s closet, followed by a series of smaller knocks. 

She opened the door, only to have Picasso almost knock her over in the process. 

“This is fun,” she said, scratching his fluffy ears as she smiled at Murphy, gesturing to the door that combined their rooms. 

He smiled back, and her heart swooped. 

Right before everything fell apart, before they all basically stopped being friends, she’d thought that maybe—

Maybe something was happening between her and Murphy, but nothing ever came of it. 

And now she wasn’t sure where they stood. 

There was still something about him that made her heart squeeze. 

“I think we’re going to explore, do you want to come? Jasper fell asleep,” he offered, unfolding a map of Sanctum from his pocket. 

“Yeah, you definitely need supervision,” she shrugged, pushing her feelings down to settle into more comfortable territory—snark. 

“Mhmm, remember when you fell in a swamp?” he fired back, gesturing to follow him into the hallway. 

They bickered lightly back and forth as they walked through the town. It was standard New England small town, peppered with signs to mark what each of the tiny, old houses were. 

The sun was sinking in the sky, air chilling, and Raven pulled her denim jacket more tightly around her shoulders 

She had to admit, this fall festival was pretty lovely. 

It smelled like cinnamon nuts and coffee, the sounds of kids laughing as they ran in the square, the whole thing felt like a warm hug. 

“Be careful...the ghost of Josephine Lightborne likes to wander the woods at night,” a voice called to them, seconds before they were about to take Picasso into a thatch of trees. 

It was an older man, wearing work boots and a heavy green jacket. His expression, stern—if four years of mystery-solving had taught them anything, it was that guys like this couldn’t be trusted. It was always the people who seemed like they were trying to warn you, that were actually baiting you into their trap. 

“Who’s Josephine Lightborne?” Murphy asked, pulling the leash a little closer. He looked unimpressed, more like he was humoring the man than taking him seriously. 

“The ghost of Sanctum. She was the daughter of the mayor, the belle of the town—until she was accused of being a witch. Of course, they burned her at the stake. But legend has it that she’s got unfinished business around here and lingers looking for a host,” the man explained, dropping his voice like this story wasn’t a focal point of the town's shtick. 

“Ghost, huh?” Raven snickered, pressing a finger to her lips, shoulders shaking from her concealed laughter. 

It wouldn’t be the first time they’d heard a ghost story, and this, much like all the times before, was probably the start of a mess. 

The man shrugged his massive shoulders, clearly irritated by their amusement. 

“Be skeptical all you want, but she’s out there,” he said gruffly before giving them a dark look and walking away. 

A chill ran down Raven’s spine, and it definitely wasn’t because of the ghost. 

By the look on Murphy’s face, he was equally unsettled by the guy. 

“Dammit, Clarke was right,” he groaned, running a hand through his hair, making it stick up in a way that was more than a little distracting. “This invitation wasn’t as innocent as it seemed.” 

***

  
Clarke whipped the door open to their room after a single knock. She was wearing a hotel bathroom, and her bob was a little mussed...what exactly she and Bellamy were doing in there, was something Murphy didn’t want to think about. 

“I was right, wasn’t it?” She exclaimed, turning around to yell back at Bellamy. “I told you I was right. There’s something weird going on here!” 

There was a long groan before Bellamy appeared wearing a matching hotel bathrobe. 

“How did you—“ Murphy asked, rubbing a thumb over his eyebrow. 

“Because there was no way Russell Prime paid for all this shit because he loves us,” Clarke said smugly, folding her arms over her chest as she stepped back to allow them in the room. 

“I hate that you’re always right, but you’re right,” he conceded, unclipping Picasso’s leash so he could settle at the foot of the bed. 

Eventually, Harper, Monty, and Jasper joined them and listened as they recounted the story of the ghost of Josephine. 

“I don’t know, it kind of sounds like a looney town rumor to me,” Monty said skeptically. “Probably helps sell tickets.” 

“Normally, I would be on your side. But this guy we saw—there was something weird about the whole thing,” Murphy explained, “he reminded me of that weirdo who dressed up like the chupacabra to steal expensive camping equipment.” 

“Aw man, that was a classic…” Bellamy agreed, ripping open a bag of Twizzlers and handing them around. 

Everyone chewed silently, mulling over the story. The big white sketchbook they used to plot out cases was splayed across the bed, waiting for them to dive back into plotting out suspects. 

“We could just ask Russell about it?” Harper suggested, and honestly, it was a sane view by their standards, but it wasn’t a bad idea. “Maybe he did lure us here for whatever reason, but he would tell us about it now, right?” 

Clarke didn’t look happy with the suggestion, and Murphy wasn’t really either. But the majority of the group seemed satisfied with the idea. 

It felt doubtful that Russell was going to be honest with them. 

***

There was a knock on the joint doors between their rooms, and a few seconds later, Murphy appeared between the gap. 

He looked tired, hair mussed, holding one of the little hotel notepads in one hand. 

“Hey,” he whispered, giving her a smile that looked almost nervous. 

“Hey,” Raven smiled back, tucking her hair behind her ear, hoping she didn’t look too rumpled. 

“I can’t stop thinking about this case,” he sighed, stepping fully into the room. “I just...I don’t know, I don’t trust Russell.” 

He held up a bottle of wine, and she nodded, rolling out of bed to get the glasses that came with the room. 

They weren’t wine glasses—but technically, they weren’t even supposed to be drinking wine. There was no need to be fancy about it. 

To her surprise, Murphy plopped himself on her bed, stretching out on the rumpled comforter. 

“Russell gives me the creeps,” Raven agreed, sitting a careful distance away. 

“The whole thing is just weird. Josephine was a biologist? And she just so happens to be ‘distantly related to Russell’ it all feels too convenient.”

Raven took a long sip of her wine, it was cheap and sweet, but it did the trick. 

Everything he said was what she’d been thinking the whole time. But oddly, the group seemed rather convinced by the half baked explanation. 

Their legs were just barely brushing, and the wine made Raven’s skin feel warm. She wanted to reach out, move closer but—

It was just too weird. 

No matter how attractive she found him, the man in front of her was still John Murphy. 

“Do you want to take a walk?” She asked, downing the rest of her glass. She’d been restless all day, unable to shake the weird feeling under her skin. Maybe some fresh air would do the trick. 

Murphy nodded, holding up a finger as he disappeared through the conjoining door. 

He reappeared a minute later with Picasso. 

“We have learned absolutely nothing about walking around alone in the dark,” he snorted, gesturing for her to follow him into the chilly night. 

The cold yellow street lamps washed over them as they walked, the leaves crunching below their feet. 

It was nice—if a little awkward. 

Raven realized belatedly, they’d slipped back into their friendship as if three years hadn’t passed. In truth, she knew nothing about the man walking beside her, only who he was when they were in high school. 

“What’s your major?” She asked, only realizing how abrupt it sounded after the words left her mouth. 

Without missing a beat, he told her that he was majoring in secondary education. 

And it threw her off balance a little. 

The idea of Murphy teaching middle schoolers seemed odd at first, but it actually made a lot of sense. 

They talked back and forth about school. Raven talked about engineering and how it wasn’t what she expected. 

“I don’t know, it’s all very...clean. I thought there would be more excitement in it all,” she explained, letting herself admit out loud for the first time that she wasn’t as happy as she thought she would be. 

“You know you can always switch, right?” He replied, meeting her gaze under one of the street lights. “You aren’t tied to the career you picked when you were nine.” 

Raven had been thinking about it a lot lately, what she wanted her life to look like. The past three years felt like a complete reinvention of herself—and not always in a way that she liked. 

But being back with her oldest friends, even if things were still a little weird. It felt like a turning point. Old Raven, meeting new Raven...and finding something in the middle. 

“I know but, it’s kind of what I’ve always been,” she shrugged, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her jean jacket. “Cybersecurity Raven doesn’t really have the same ring to it.” 

“You’ll figure it out,” he grinned, nudging her with his elbow. “And if you don’t, I’ll give you my van when I’m a millionaire. I’ve always thought it would make for comfortable sleeping.” 

She barked out a laugh, smacking him and letting her hand linger on his chest. 

Murphy gave her a careful smile, his eyes flicking down to her hand, but before he could say anything, Picasso started barking. 

And Picasso never barked unless…

A white figure came flying at them, and despite the skeptic in them both, it looked staggeringly real. 

Murphy grabbed her hand and—they ran, sprinting as fast as they could. 

“What the fuck was that?!” Raven screamed, looking over her shoulder only to find the white figure still following them. 

It was floating above the ground, shaped vaguely like a woman. 

“Do you really want to wait and find out?” He panted, urging Picasso to go a little faster. 

It only occurred to her then, that they probably should stop. 

Ghosts weren’t real. Whatever that was, it’s most definitely human. 

But when she looked again, it vanished. 

They slowed to a stop a few feet from the inn, both panting violently. 

“Call Bellamy now,” Murphy said, bracing his hands on his knees. “Because Russell Prime is a fucking liar.” 

***

  
Which was how they all ended up piled in Raven’s bed at 1 in the morning, more confused than when they started. 

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Jasper groaned, flopping his head down on Harper’s shoulder. 

“Obviously, whatever the hell we saw wasn’t a ghost. I’m not an idiot,” Murphy explained for the second time. “But whoever was behind that put a lot of effort into making it look real.” 

This time the notebook was full of scribbles, all in different handwriting. They’d never come upon something like this, a case that nobody wanted them to crack. 

But everything about this town had scam written all over it. 

“But why would it be Russell? He said he’s disappointed by the way they’ve been smearing Josephine’s name, that he’s researching her to clear her reputation,” Monty said, drawing a circle around Russell in the notebook. 

“If anything, he would’ve somehow tried to find a way for us to help him find her journal. It’s the only way to prove that she was a scientist and not a witch,” Bellamy agreed, pulling a pair of glasses out of his pocket so he could look at their notes. 

It was a small gesture, something that meant absolutely nothing, but seeing Bellamy in glasses suddenly made him look very—grown-up. 

With a deep sigh, Murphy looked around the room, taking in each of the people who he used to consider his best friends in the world, his family. The changes were small, would’ve been entirely unnoticeable if they saw each other every day. But with the perspective of distance, he could see the sharpness to Harper’s cheekbones, the slight curl in Clarke’s shoulders, the way Raven’s smile didn’t quite spread across her entire face. 

He thought being back would be different, that this might be a chance for them all to reconnect. But so far, they still felt like strangers. 

A part of him desperately wanted to drop this Russell thing, to just enjoy the weekend and spend some time with people he missed. 

But years of being too nosy for his own good were working against him. 

“Okay, maybe it’s not Russell. But someone else is still doing really freaky shit around here,” Raven groaned, obvious as exasperated as he was. 

It was weird. When they were kids, he’d liked Raven the least. They were always fighting, butting heads, making a scene. And as he got older, he realized some of those disagreements were fueled by his attraction to her, but that didn’t stop them from arguing at every turn. 

But now, she was basically the only one on his side, the only one who wasn’t acting completely crazy. 

“But like, is it a crime?” Bellamy sighed, rubbing his temples. “If they’re just assholes, that isn’t really our problem, is it?” 

The bickering continued for almost an hour, with people jumping back and forth on whether they should act or just leave everything alone. 

“We’ll investigate tomorrow,” Clarke declared after another round of circular conversation. “If we don’t find anything, we can let it go?” 

Everyone nodded, groaning at how late it was as they dispersed into their own rooms, leaving only Murphy and Raven sitting on the bed again. 

“I’m going to go confront Russell tomorrow. Do you want to come?” He asked, waiting until Jasper disappeared through the joint doors. 

Raven nodded, and it was all the confirmation he needed to know it was the right decision. 

***

But Russell’s reaction was not what they expected.

“Did you really see a ghost?” He asked, voiced tinted with...something Murphy couldn’t place. 

“I mean, it’s probably not a ghost,” Murphy shrugged, suddenly feeling unsettled by the conversation. 

“No, but—I—this is news to me. I’ve never heard of someone actually seeing this alleged Josephine in person,” Russell continued, now flipping through a thick notebook he pulled from his pocket. 

Raven glanced back at Murphy, and suddenly, this felt like a mistake. 

“Do you think we could find her again?” Russell asked, eyebrows shooting up, expression suddenly hopeful. 

“Uhh...if you want to hire us on, you’ll have to talk to Clarke and Bellamy,” Murphy shrugged, not wanting to deal with this anymore. 

He should’ve just listened to everyone else and left it alone. This felt like a can of worms that he really didn’t want to open. 

Russell made a full 180 turn from being indignant about slandering his relative. 

Now, he seemed almost hopeful that the ghost was real. 

The older man nodded, still smiling as he said his goodbyes and walked away. 

***

  
“There is no historical record of Josephine Lightborne,” Monty explained, flipping open a thick book. “The only thing I could find was a church document of her family’s arrival in town and some weird stuff about her father becoming the mayor.”

“So, she wasn’t born here?” Clarke asked, uncapping the marker so she could scribble in the sketchbook. “That’s kind of weird considering the era, right?” 

“Yeah...the Lightbornes were the only family to not have roots in the town. No record of where they came from either. Kind of odd considering that they basically ran this town within a few years of getting here.” 

In the end, they’d taken the case, and so far, it was leading them nowhere. 

Monty hauled another giant book onto the table and was about to open it when a man came to stand beside them. 

“I’ve heard you all are quite the bunch,” he said with a broad smile, gesturing for a waiter to bring them drinks. “I figured I should come to introduce myself. I’m Cillian, Mayor of Sanctum.” 

This time Bellamy was the one who bristled, shoulders tensing as he curtly greeted the mayor. 

Cillian didn’t seem to notice, his hand perched casually on the back of Clarke’s chair as he talked about the town. 

He seemed fine enough, standard political type, probably not relevant to whatever they were working on. 

“And this is my right-hand man, Gabriel Santiago,” Cillian continued, gesturing for a taller man to come over. 

Gabriel smiled curtly, expression neutral as his eyes flicked over their stacks of books and notes. If they meant anything to him, he didn’t show it. 

The whole thing was formal and awkward. The mayor waxing poetic about the town and Gabriel standing stoically behind him. 

“I hope you get the chance to read about the red sun in your research about the town,” Gabriel said as they turned away. “It really is quite interesting.” 

And with that, they were gone. 

“This whole town is fucking weird,” Bellamy sighed, taking a drink from his beer. 

They turned back to their research, desperately trying to find an explanation for the white figure, to piece together why Russell was so desperate to figure out what was going on with this ghost. 

But, the books provided nothing close to useful. 

“I think we should just go back out into the forest and look for it again,” Raven said, closing the book in her lap. 

Everyone nodded, closing their books in agreement. 

“No more work for today. We are not spending this entire trip toiling over this stupid ghost,” Jasper declared with a bright smile. “I want to go to the butter-making demonstration.” 

***

  
Raven ran into Clarke in the barn. She jumped when Raven came up behind her, obviously not expecting an intrusion. 

“I uh, sorry I didn’t know anyone else was in here,” Raven said, shuffling her boot on the floor. 

She and Clarke used to be best friends. They were inseparable. Until they got to high school, and it became more and more evident that they were totally different people. 

Now, Raven didn’t even know how to talk to her. She couldn’t remember the last time they’d been alone together. 

They wandered the barn in silence, neither able to resist snooping around in search of clues. 

It was part of what made them so good, what helped them solve hundreds of mysteries before this. 

Except this time, they were disjointed and disorganized, unsure of what the case entailed and how to act around each other. It made a case that was already complicated even more stressful. 

“I thought Bellamy was going to murder Cillian,” Raven snickered, breaking the silence between them as she dug through piles of hay. 

“Yeah, it’s cute when he’s jealous, isn’t it?” Clarke smirked, climbing up an old wooden ladder. 

Another beat of silence. 

“What’s going on with you and Murphy?” 

It was only a matter of time before someone asked, but Raven genuinely didn’t know how to answer the question. She wondered whether Clarke had noticed her crush when they were kids, she’d always thought it was subtle, but Clarke was more perceptive than most. 

“Nothing,” she shrugged, technically it was the truth. She and Murphy were good friends. Perhaps more civil than they’d been when they were younger, but nothing more than that. 

Clarke raised an eyebrow but didn’t press it further. Instead, she pulled a sheet off with a grand flourish...only to reveal an automated apple picker. 

The barn proved to be a dead end. 

***

  
Picasso sniffed the forest floor, aimlessly wandering around the woods. 

So far—they’d been walking for an hour with no luck. 

“I’m starving,” Jasper groaned as they circled the first for the fourth time. 

Wordlessly, Harper pulled a stick of beef jerky from her purse and handed it over. 

Some things never changed. 

Murphy bent down, rubbing his dog on the back, hoping that he wasn’t getting too frustrated from all the retracing. 

Of course, the ghost didn’t want to show itself when they finally had witnesses. 

“Why don’t we just chill here for a while,” Bellamy suggested, gesturing to a small clearing between the trees. “There’s no point in roaming around. If this ghost wants to find us, then it’ll find us.” 

There was a chorus of agreement, and Murphy had to admit, it would be a relief to sit down. 

They passed around Harper’s sticks of beef jerky and some trail mix from Bellamy’s backpack. It was nice. Reminded Murphy of being a kid and doing little stakeouts to figure out if their English teacher was dressing up as a ghoul on the weekends. 

“Do you remember that time we were looking for Bigfoot, and that crazy dog found us and chased us for three blocks until we realized that Monty had a turkey sandwich in his pocket?” Clarke chuckled, leaning back on her elbows as they settled onto the floor. 

Everyone laughed as they reminisced on some of their wilder cases. It was crazy to think about now—the things they got up to in high school. 

“Don’t forget about when we were convinced Raven’s 85-year-old neighbor was dressing up like a mime and spray painting stop signs,” Harper added, choking on a laugh as she spoke. 

“Mrs. Addington was very suspicious, okay?” Raven said between laughs. 

He was again caught off guard by how beautiful she looked, head tipped back, smiling like she was truly happy. 

For the first time since they arrived in Sanctum, things felt normal. They were talking and joking and laughing like they were friends, like the past three years weren’t a giant gap of text threads that led nowhere. 

“I really missed you guys,” Bellamy said after a beat, reaching out to pat a hand on Murphy’s shoulder. 

Murphy covered his hand with his own. 

He’d missed this too. 

He met Raven’s gaze from across the circle. Her head was pillowed on Harper’s shoulder, long hair falling across her face. 

She smiled at him, and his heart jumped in his chest. 

Admittedly, this was too soft by his standards, but it was nice to let himself be a part of something again. 

No matter how much time they spent apart, they were a family. 

But their moment was cut short when Picasso barked, lunging up from where he was stretched out in Clarke’s lap. 

It gave them a few seconds warning before the white figure came flying at them, cackling and shrieking and screaming.

Murphy’s first instinct was to run. In his peripheral, he could see Bellamy, Harper, and Monty trying to get some distance from the ghost. 

But Clarke, Raven, and Jasper were nowhere to be seen. 

“That was freakishly real,” Monty panted, running a hand through his hair as he looked back in the direction they ran from. “There was even a chill in the air.” 

Bellamy pinched his nose between his fingers, trying to look through the trees. 

“We have to go back,” he said firmly, already walking back in the direction they came.

Murphy followed, a pit in his stomach, forming as they searched the trees for the ghost. 

Jasper was cowering behind a tree, a safe distance from the ghost, but Clarke and Raven were still nowhere to be seen. 

Bellamy seemed to be growing desperate. Obviously, he wanted to call out to Clarke but didn’t want to draw more attention to them. 

And surprisingly, Murphy was starting to feel the same way. He couldn’t shake the idea that Raven was in danger. 

Whatever that thing was wasn’t a ghost. But it was probably still dangerous. 

He kicked himself for not reacting differently, for just assuming that she reacted quickly enough to run too. 

The whole thing made him feel unsettled. Raven and Clarke were two of the smartest people he knew. They knew better than to run straight into a suspect without a plan. 

Unless, of course, they had a plan. 

They had to have a plan, had to have an explanation for why they would do something so blatantly crazy. 

But all reason vanished when the ghost reappeared, swinging violently toward Bellamy and Murphy. 

Without a second thought, they both lunged. 

It was no use. With a loud thump, they hit the ground—hard. 

A few seconds later, the ghost flickered above their heads, followed by a loud mechanical whirring. 

And then Clarke emerged from between the trees, holding a man wearing a black morphsuit in a grip that showed a surprising amount of force. 

Behind her, was Raven, driving an old Apple picker with a projector attached to the basket. 

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Bellamy said, reaching to pull the mask off the suit. “I thought this whole old white men in masks thing was over.” 

And sure enough—it was the mayor. 

Cillian sputtered, trying to gather up an explanation for what he was doing. But it was late and freezing, and none of them really wanted to hear it. 

What happened from here was Russell’s problem, not theirs. 

***

  
The whole group was seated around a large wood table in the mayor’s office. The contents of Josephine’s vigil scattered across the table. 

A feather, a few stones, two water drowned candles, a piece of indulgent cloth, a small hand-carved music box, and a leather-bound journal held together by a piece of fraying twine. 

“This is honestly disgraceful,” Russell boomed, slamming his hand on the table and sending the stones rolling onto the floor. “You mar an innocent woman’s image for—tourism money.” 

Murphy sank back into his seat, reaching under the table to scratch Picasso’s head. 

Everything about the situation felt like annoying town politics. He still didn’t really buy whatever act Russell was putting on. 

The two men yelled back and forth about the greater good of the town while their friends and Gabriel sat awkwardly around the table. 

“Catch up Russell, times are changing. This town needs money,” Cillian sighed, leaning back in his chair. 

“Find an avenue other than my—-ancestor to do it,” he snapped back, throwing Cillian a very dark look. 

The sharpness in it sent a shiver down Murphy’s spine. 

From across the table, he met Clarke’s gaze, and she looked thrown off by it too. 

“What if you gave Russell the artifacts from Josephine and maybe Russell, you can compromise on some of the likenesses?” Harper said gently, picking up the journal to demonstrate. 

From his corner in the room, Gabriel cleared his throat loudly, stepping forward to take the journal from Harper. 

“These are historical artifacts. It hardly seems appropriate to give them away,” he said quickly, holding the book to his chest. 

An odd look crossed Russell’s face, his eyes stuck on the leather book. 

Something passed between the two men, wordlessly, like they shared a bond beyond what everyone else in the room perceived. 

“If you give me the journal and the other items, I’ll allow you to continue to use Josephine’s likeness without protest,” he conceded, not looking away from Gabriel. 

The expression on Gabriel’s face was cartoonishly concerned, but Cillian agreed, reaching out a hand to shake Russell’s. 

Murphy had a sinking feeling this whole mess was nowhere close to over. 

***

  
“C'mon Bellamy! Live a little,” Jasper yelled, shoving an orange balloon crown and a caramel apple into their friend’s hand. 

With a smirk, Bellamy placed the crown on Clarke’s head. 

Monty appeared beside him with a cartoonishly large donut, cut in half to make room for two scoops of slowly melting vanilla ice cream. 

“Don’t worry, we got some for you guys too,” he said around a mouthful, handing Raven a caramel apple the size of her head. 

The mood was light, with everyone celebrating a successful case, but things still felt unresolved. 

She tried to take a bite out of her apple and put on a smile, laughing as Harper plopped a balloon hat onto her head too. 

“Say cheese ya losers,” Murphy yelled, snapping a picture of Raven and Clarke with orange and black balloons on their heads. 

“Not so fast,” Bellamy snickered, sliding a pair of cat ears over Murphy’s head. 

All Raven’s suspicions slipped away as she doubled over laughing at the scene.

It was innocent and beautiful and too good of an afternoon to waste. Monty had a smudge of vanilla ice cream on his mouth, Harper's cheeks flushed from her laugher, arms swung around her boyfriend’s shoulders. Jasper was trying to take pictures of Murphy in the cat ears, only to be swatted away. 

Raven tried to commit it all the memory, soak in this rare moment with people she didn’t get to see enough. Despite herself, she sandwiched between Bellamy and Clarke, letting them hug her tightly. 

The red sun festival became more fun than they anticipated, chock full of historical reenactments and punk rock girl bands that played songs about witches. 

“Here,” Murphy whispered, unwrapping his scarf and slinging it around Raven’s neck. 

He must’ve seen her shivering. 

The checkered fabric smelled like cologne and something that was distinctly Murphy, with a few stray dog hairs peppered on it. 

Part of her wanted to protest, but the scarf was warm, and the gesture itself was too wholesome to turn down. 

They laid out in the grass, listening to a group of high schoolers sing about Halloween. 

Picasso nuzzled into Raven’s palm, whining softly. 

“He wants to go for a walk,” Murphy sighed, moving to stand up, but Raven stood before he could. 

“Take it easy, I’ve got it. I need to stretch my leg anyway,” she assured, taking the leash from him and leading Picasso into the woods. 

At least there was no ghost to worry about now.

She let her thoughts wander as they walked, her memories flitting over her friendships. 

Things were just starting to feel normal again. 

With everyone except Murphy. 

Between them, there was a hint of something more. A feeling that had always been there, but recently it was harder to ignore. 

His scarf was still around her neck, still tinged with the scent of his cologne, and it was comforting in a way that Raven couldn’t quite place. 

She’d never had the comfort of familiarity like this. Didn’t find relief in the scent of her mom’s perfume or in the woodsy scent of a hug from her dad. Never had a house that felt like home. 

Her friends, the gang, they were the first family she’d known. But until recently, they were always too close for her to really understand it. 

Now though, she noticed things like the smell of Murphy’s scarf and the warmth of Clarke’s hugs, the way Bellamy squeezed her shoulder, and Jasper constantly shoved food in everyone’s faces. 

This scarf took her back to their prom, of having Murphy’s arms around her, swaying gently back and forth to the sound of the music. 

Part of her had thought he would kiss her, but the song ended before she could find out, and another moment never arose. 

Raven’s feelings for him dulled with time, but now, they were back in full force. 

Picasso whined, and she paused, letting him sniff around in the dirt. 

It was getting dark, the beginnings of a red and orange-tinged moon emerging from behind the clouds. 

Another cool breeze washed over them, and Raven shivered, tugging gently on Picasso’s leash to urge him on. 

Admittedly, it was a little unsettling, the way the trees were rustling, and the light of the moon shone like blood in the sky. 

A twig snapped behind her, and then, everything went black. 

***

  
Picasso came running through the crowd, bumping his nose against Murphy’s leg. 

His leash was tucked in his mouth, and Raven was nowhere to be seen. 

“What the hell?” He murmured, bending to wrap his arms around his dog. 

Picasso shivered, whining loudly as he tried to get as close to Murphy as possible. It left an unsettling pit in his stomach. 

He rubbed a soothing hand down Picasso’s back, eyes flicking up to meet Bellamy and Clarke’s. 

“She would never have—“ he began, still trying to calm Picasso down. 

Clarke pulled her lip between her teeth, looking toward the forest, like she was waiting for Raven to emerge unscathed any second. 

But no luck. 

“Let me, please,” Bellamy pleaded, blanching at the idea of losing Clarke in the forest again. 

But Clarke fixed him with a stern glare, not even bothering to wait for anyone else. She just turned toward the forest and headed out on her own. 

With a shrug, Murphy followed, stomach sinking at the thought of what might have happened. 

They’d barely made it a few feet into the woods when everyone else jogged to walk beside them. 

“We’re done with this splitting up shit. It literally never ends well,” Harper explained, patting Bellamy on the shoulder as she walked past him. 

“I think we can all agree that splitting up was never strategic and completely about Bellamy wanting to be alone with Clarke,” Jasper snorted, taking Picasso’s leash from Murphy so he could push further into the brush. 

Despite himself, Murphy snorted in agreement. It was the truth. He’d always tried to split up with Raven for similar reasons. 

They wandered aimlessly, and the longer they did, the more panicked Murphy got. 

He had just about reached his wit's end, when Russell popped out from behind a tree, causing Jasper and Monty to scream in shock. 

Following behind him—was Raven. 

The relief was immeasurable, seeing her unharmed and upright. 

Murphy couldn’t help it. He ran to her, wrapping her in a hug so tight he lifted her off the ground. 

It took her a moment to respond, and then Raven hugged him back, kissing his cheek as she pulled away. 

His neck heated at the gesture, and everyone’s eyes were on them, but he tried to seem as unaffected as possible. 

“I tripped, and thankfully Russell found me lying in the leaves,” she explained, reaching out to twine her fingers with Murphy’s as she spoke. 

And something about the situation suddenly struck him as strange. 

Even if she’d had some sort of near-death experience, there was no way Raven would suddenly start holding his hand in front of all their friends. 

Not to mention that she wasn’t favoring her leg the way she usually did when her injury flared up. 

“Did you lose your phone too? We called you at least 100 times,” Bellamy said, eyes fixed on where Raven and Murphy's hands were joined. 

“Sadly, it’s beyond repair,” Russell supplied, pulling a crushed and mangled phone from his pocket. 

Raven seemed completely unbothered by the phone, further fueling Murphy’s suspicions. He knew what a phone like that cost, that people like him and Raven didn’t have money to throw around. An expense like this was enough to throw off groceries for an entire month. 

But everyone else seemed to take Russell’s statements at face value, taking turns hugging Raven before they headed back into town. 

***

  
Raven followed Murphy into his room, flopping back on the bed and staring at him expectantly. 

“Are you okay?” He asked carefully, throwing his coat on a chair as he looked her up and down. 

She looked like Raven and sounded like Raven, but this wasn’t her. Everything about the way she was acting felt wrong. 

“Why wouldn’t I be okay?” She shrugged, splaying backward and stretching out, so her shirt rode up her torso. 

Typically, the sight would’ve sent a wave of heat through his body. But right now, he just felt numb. 

Picasso came scampering through the joint door and lunged directly onto the bed, showering Raven in wet kisses. 

It eased Murphy’s worries slightly. Surely if there was something wrong with her, Picasso would’ve noticed. 

There wasn’t really a logical explanation for all this anyway…

And yet, he just couldn’t let it go. 

Trying to act as casually as possible, he took out his phone, trying to make it seem like he was scrolling through social media. 

“Please give me a logical explanation for why Raven seems like a totally different person all of a sudden. Am I losing it?” He typed to Bellamy and Clarke, knowing that if there was something genuinely wrong, they would’ve noticed too. 

“I think the adrenaline is getting to you, Murph. Get some sleep,” Clarke typed back, following up with a gif of a sleeping baby. 

Well—that wasn’t the answer he was hoping for. 

He wanted to press Raven further, to see if there was any basis for his suspicion. But before he could, Jasper burst through the door, dropping an armful of Halloween candy onto the carpet. 

“Isn’t this amazing!?!” He exclaimed, tossing a Reese’s cup to Murphy. 

Raven was eying the candy suspiciously, like she didn’t know what to make of it. 

Rolling slightly off the bed, she reached for a purple Jolly Rancher and popped it into her mouth. 

Murphy waited expectantly for her to spit it out. She hated hard candy, and anything grape flavored more than anything. 

And his stomach sank when she ate it like nothing was wrong. 

Sure, people’s tastes change, but a lifelong hatred of purple candy didn’t vanish overnight. 

Jasper kept digging through the candy like nothing was wrong, grinning triumphantly when he found a Three Muskateer’s bar. 

Murphy: “Seriously guys, something is wrong,” 

Bellamy: “What exactly do you think is happening here, Murphy?” 

Murphy: “Raven isn’t acting like Raven.” 

Clarke: “I don’t think technology exists for a mask that convincing.” 

Bellamy: “We all hugged her. I think we would’ve noticed if it was a mask.” 

Murphy: “This isn’t funny. I’m seriously freaked out.” 

They bickered back and forth for a while, until Murphy could feel Raven’s eyes on him. 

Once again, a gesture that should have made his chest flutter sent the hair on the back of his neck prickling. 

He reached down to eat another Reese’s cup just to have something to do, when his phone buzzed again. 

Bellamy: “Russell invited us down to toast the red sun.” 

It was all the confirmation he needed to know that his suspicions weren’t entirely unfounded. 

***

  
Russell seemed off-kilter from the second they met him outside the inn. His wide, photoshopped smile faltering as Raven approached. 

Raven seemed to sense it too, because her back suddenly straightened. 

For a celebratory holiday, there was nobody in sight, the whistle of the wind filling the empty town square. 

“Where is everyone?” Clarke asked, voice even, like she too was starting to suspect something weird was going on. 

But Russell ignored her, eyes still fixed firmly on Raven. 

The silence was thick, hanging over their heads as everyone waited for Raven to react. 

The intensity of Russell’s stare alone should have been enough to make her recoil, but instead, her body remained stock still. 

“Rae?” Clarke asked gently, resting her hand on their friend’s arm. 

At this, she gasped, ripping her arm out of Clarke’s grasp before looking at Russell like he committed a crime.

“You picked the wrong one!” She gasped, nostrils flaring with irritation as she moved closer to the older man. 

None of them had any clue what was going on, other than the fact that Raven didn’t seem to care about anyone except Russell. 

Bellamy pulled Clarke until she was standing behind him as he, too, realized that this was beyond what they anticipated. 

It seemed like a logical move considering how Raven was looking at her while she bickered with Russell. 

“Josie, you can’t do this,” another voice called from somewhere in the distance, giving them a few seconds of warning before Gabriel appeared. 

“Josie?” Harper whispered, just as Raven whipped around again, jaw hanging open as she took in the newest addition to their group. 

“This isn’t right,” he continued, reaching out to take Raven’s hand. 

It didn’t make sense, but—Murphy’s hunch was spot on. Someone else was inside Raven’s body. 

He felt numb, confused. This shouldn’t be possible. None of this was real. It was supposed to be an old white dude in a mask. Ghosts, witches, body snatching, they’d spent their entire childhoods disproving all of it. 

But there wasn’t a more logical explanation in sight. 

“You need to help us, Gabriel. We need that one,” she pleaded, pointing to Clarke. “He picked the wrong one. It isn’t working. She’s still in here.” 

Murphy’s blood ran cold, she meant Raven. Which meant that ‘Josie’ was trying to kill her. 

Gabriel shoved his hands in his jacket pockets, worrying his lip between his teeth. 

“I can’t help you do this,” he said carefully, taking another step toward Raven. 

“I always told you he was weak, Josephine,” Russell spat out, pulling the old music box from his bag. 

Josephine. 

“Josephine, Lightbourne is real?!?” Jasper yelled from his place, holding Picasso. 

“Of course I’m real, you idiot,” Raven sighed, voice taking on a completely different intonation. 

Without looking at one another, Bellamy and Murphy both lunged, trying to tackle Russell to the ground. 

But he vanished on the spot, only to reappear a few feet away. 

“Cute that you thought that would work,” Josephine’s voice continued, taking on an almost taunting quality as she strode toward Clarke. 

She ran a finger against the side of Clarke’s face, tilting her chin up just slightly. 

“Now you...are a Ferrari. I can’t believe my father didn’t see it sooner,” she sighed, snapping her fingers, so Clarke was frozen in place. 

Trying not to draw too much attention to himself, Murphy held Bellamy down on the ground. The last thing they needed was for all of them to be frozen in place. 

“Can someone please explain what’s going on,” Jasper groaned, holding tightly to Picasso’s leash as the dog growled at Josephine. “You skipped the villain speech, and that’s kind of an important part of this whole thing.” 

Josephine rolled her eyes, snapping her fingers again so that Jasper’s mouth was moving, but no words came out. 

“Josie stop it,” Gabriel groaned, raising an eyebrow until she snapped again and all of Jasper’s pent-up words came out in a jumbled heap. 

Gabriel rubbed his temple with his thumb, clearly frustrated with the situation they were in. 

“I told you guys to look up the red sun, but of course, nobody listens to me,” he sighed, pointing to the blood orange moon. “It happens very rarely, and when it does, there’s a certain...magic that comes to life. The kind of magic that could per se, free a witch that was trapped in a music box because she got completely out of control.” 

The last part was pointed, and Josephine did not like what he’d just told them. 

“I was wronged. My immortality was stolen from me! Look at you, smug and holier than thou...but you’re still here, aren’t you?” She snapped, positioning Raven’s body in a gesture that was frankly unrecognizable. 

“I renounced my powers. This is a curse. I’m a mortal trapped in a body that won’t die,” Gabriel explained, slowly, as if he was speaking to a child. He snapped his fingers for emphasis, to demonstrate that there wasn’t any magic there. 

“Okay, but what does this have to do with us? There’s no way that psychopath luring us here was a fucking coincidence,” Murphy snapped, still crouched on the ground. He was wholly freaked out by what was occurring, but the bickering was getting a little old. 

Russell spun his fingers in a circle, drawing an almost movie-like reenactment of their first meeting at the metropolitan museum of art. They all looked younger, softer, more baby faced. 

“I could sense when I first met you all that one of you was the ideal host for Josephine. You were never more than a few feet apart, so it was hard to identify exactly which one it was,” he explained, wiggling his fingers, so the scene moved forward. “It felt logical to simply lure you all here together.” 

“And you guessed wrong,” Josephine sighed impatiently, tapping her fingers on her forearm. 

“I didn’t guess wrong, Josephine,” Russell said, obviously irritated by his daughter’s accusations. “Clarke’s ties to Bellamy were too strong. I knew that if I put the chip in her...it wouldn’t take. Raven felt like a stronger choice, fewer attachments…” 

“Except you didn’t account for—-John Murphy,” Josephine smirked, shaking her head as she turned to walk toward Murphy. “She seems quite fond of you. Poor thing is convinced that you’ll somehow be able to save her.” 

His skin burned. He wanted to grab Josephine’s leg out from under her, to pull her to the ground, and beat the ghost right out of Raven’s body. But he couldn’t do that, not if it risked hurting Raven. 

Bellamy nudged Murphy with his elbow, hard, three times.

That was their signal, always had been. Whether they were trying to sneak out of a geometry class or catch a bad guy in a net, that nudge meant he wasn’t flying by himself. 

Their fate rode on what he did next, what he said. One wrong move, and they would lose Raven forever. 

He needed to put everything on the line, in front of all their friends and two psycho strangers who were trying to kill them. 

One hell of a confession—he had to admit. 

But Murphy didn’t have a choice. 

It was either make a total ass out of himself or let the one person who’d always been there for him die. 

“You and I are cockroaches, Rae, people like us get crushed over and over, but we get up and keep going,” Murphy began, slowly drawing himself to his feet. “I know that your whole life, you’ve felt like people leave you behind. But we’ve always been there for each other...even the last three years. There was a comfort in knowing that we were on the same campus. I can’t remember what my life was like without you and having you back now—I can’t lose you again. I know that’s selfish of me but, we need more time. I don’t want to have to tell you how I feel like this—“ 

But before he could finish, Russell sent his body flying into a tree, and he hit the bark with a hard smack. 

It was enough to knock the wind out of him. 

That was it, he didn’t finish. 

They were going to lose her. 

Until, Clarke stood and continued where he left off. 

“I was jealous for a long time that you seemed to understand my own mother better than I could, but you’re my sister at the end of the day. Whether we tell each other or not, I love you, and I will never forget the day you fell out of my treehouse and became my friend—“ 

Clarke’s jaw clamped shut with the snap of Josephine’s fingers, but it was clear that this was affecting her. 

“C’mon Raven, fight it...please, please,” he yelled, hoping it was enough, that she could hear him. 

Murphy expected the shift to be more dramatic, but Raven just crumpled, splaying out in the grass. 

He and Russell jumped at the same time, crowding around her, both desperate to figure out who prevailed. 

With a gasp, Raven sat straight up, and immediately threw her arms around Murphy’s shoulders. 

“I almost died, and you call me a cockroach,” she murmured, burying her face in his neck. 

All he could do was laugh as he held her tighter, so focused on his relief of having her back that he didn’t notice Russell and Gabriel’s conversation. 

“You have to destroy the box,” Gabriel instructed, pulling Russell away by the arm. 

But of course, he fought it. 

“No, no, we can implant her in Clarke—-it’ll be fine, this can still work,” he sputtered, flipping through the journal as he shrugged them off. 

“Like hell you are,” Bellamy snapped, reaching across the circle to grab the book before Russell could disappear again. 

In a fluid motion, he ripped the journal at the spine, three times, and the magic releasing into the air was palatable. 

“It’s over, Russell,” Gabriel sighed, holding his hand out for the box. “You either let this go and accept your fate, or Josephine’s spirit will drag you into the void with her. Your immortality is tied to hers.” 

Russell’s head whipped up, just in time to see clouds covering the red moon, a stark reminder that the night couldn’t last forever. 

He looked desperate, like he was searching for any way to keep his daughter alive. 

If the guy wasn’t such an asshole, Murphy might have felt bad for him. But seeing Raven weakly draped in Harper’s lap sent all his sympathy out the window. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Clarke edging toward Raven...with Jasper’s lighter hidden behind her back. 

As usual, they had a plan. 

With a faint nod, Raven pulled a small disc from her mouth, tossing it to Clarke.   
  
Clarke immediately ignited the lighter and set the disc on fire. 

It fell to the grass in a small glob of melted plastic. 

The distraction gave Bellamy and Murphy just enough time to pin Russell to the ground while Monty extracted the music box. 

“You can either go around fishing in his mouth for the chip, or we can just wait it out until the sun comes up, and Josephine’s soul takes him with her,” Gabriel shrugged. “Personally, I would go with the latter, less messy.” 

“We can tie him to a tree with Picasso’s leash!” Jasper called excitedly, already unclipping the long nylon rope. 

Russell sputtered in panic, but Murphy flicked him on the side of the head. 

“Play stupid games, win stupid prizes,” he shrugged, hauling him up so they could attach him to the tree. 

***

  
Murphy draped his coat around Raven’s shoulders as they walked out of the diner. 

The sun had long since come up, and Russell faded away with it, leaving Gabriel to take care of the music box and remnants of the journal. 

“So that was extremely fucked up,” Murphy said, suddenly nervous as the group spread out, and he was alone with Raven. 

He wasn’t sure how much of his speech she’d actually heard. 

Maybe if he was lucky, she’d forgotten. 

“So uh, now that I’m not body-snatched...what was it that you wanted to tell me?” She asked, seeming, almost shy as she reached out to take his hand. “Because for a second there, I really thought that you were going to…” 

Murphy didn’t have the words to fully express, so he just pulled her hand closer. 

They were face to face now, noses almost brushing. After nearly losing her only a few hours before, he took the time to study Raven’s face. The high tilt of her cheekbones, warm brown eyes, soft turn of her smile, there were pieces there of the little girl who punched him in the face on the playground. So much history sat in this moment, unshed tears, fights, moments of comfort. 

She’d been by his side through so much, and today was just another thing to add to their list. 

Carefully, he reached out to cup her jaw, seconds before their lips met. 

The kiss itself wasn’t earth-shattering, but it felt like something important clicked into place. The same kind of shift that occurred when Bellamy ripped the journal, just on a less cosmic scale. 

He was just about to deepen the kiss, when Picasso, still unleashed, came barreling toward them and knocked them into the grass. 

It only felt fitting that this was how he and Raven finally found their way back to one another. 

**Author's Note:**

> I am living my best life with these AU's, this one was based off "Scooby-Doo and the Witches' Ghost" which is so good I recommend you watch it, babes. Thank you to hopskipaway for prompting me to do a fall fic! 
> 
> Please check out t100ficforBLM if you haven't already it is really such a wonderful cause, if you want to be friends you can also find me on Tumblr @Nakey-cats-take-bathss
> 
> I love you guys so much, if you liked this one please let me know in the comments! Be well, stay safe and healthy! Till next time <3


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